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Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Overview

Organization TypeFunding Agencies

Staff1001-5000

Development BudgetOver 500 Million

HeadquartersUnited States

Founded1959

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) supports efforts by Latin America and the Caribbean countries to reduce poverty and inequality. They aim to bring about development in a sustainable, climate-friendly way.
Established in 1959, they are the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, with a strong commitment to achieve measurable results, increased integrity, transparency and accountability. They have an evolving reform agenda that seeks to increase their development impact in the region.
While they are a regular bank in many ways, they are also unique in some key respects. Besides loans, they also provide grants, technical assistance and do research. Their shareholders are 48 member countries, including 26 Latin American and Caribbean borrowing members, who have a majority ownership of the IDB.
Their Fund for Special Operations (FSO) provides concessional financing to their most vulnerable member countries.
Given their shareholder base and prudent management, they have a strong financial position. As a result, the IDB is able to borrow in international markets at competitive rates and transfer that benefit to their clients.
WHAT THEY DO
Partnering with clients, the IDB seeks to eliminate poverty and inequality, and promotes sustainable economic growth.
The Bank supports clients in the design of projects, and provides financing, technical assistance and knowledge services to support development interventions. The IDB focuses on empirical evidence for making decisions and measuring the impact of this projects to increase its development effectiveness.
Clients
The IDB lends to national, provincial, state and municipal governments as well as autonomous public institutions. Civil society organizations and private sector companies are also elegible for IDB financing.
Objectives, Goals and Sector Priorities
In the Ninth General Capital Increase, the Board of Governors mandates the Bank to pursue two overarching objectives: reducing poverty and inequality and achieving sustainable growth. Alongside these objectives are two strategic goals: addressing the special needs of the less developed and smaller countries and fostering development through the private sector.
To achieve the Bank’s objectives, the Report on the Ninth General Increase in the Resources of the Inter-American Development Bank, identifies five sector priorities:
social policy for equity and productivity;infrastructure for competitiveness and social welfare;institutions for growth and social welfare;competitive regional and global international integration; andprotection of the environment, response to climate change, promotion of renewable energy and ensuring food security.
Social policy for equity and productivity
Sector prioritiesOngoing involvementDevelopment areas
Safety nets for the poor
Expansion and improvement of conditional cash transfer programs; temporary employment programs
Incentive-compatible design of social safety nets; articulation with labor markets
Labor markets
Training, labor intermediation services
Design and financing of social insurance systems; expansion of social security to informal workers; functioning of labor markets and informality
Education
Expansion of coverage in preschool and secondary levels
Early childhood development; school to work transition; quality of primary and secondary education
Health
Expansion of access to basic health and nutrition services
Preventive health protocols; tackling epidemiological transition
Gender and diversity
Expansion of basic services and social safety nets to Afro-descendents and indigenous communities
Labor market outcomes for women; narrowing gaps in indigenous women’s education and health outcomes; strengthening the legal framework against discrimination
Infrastructure for competitiveness and social welfare
Sector prioritiesOngoing involvementDevelopment areas
Basic services
Infrastructure investment to expand access to water and sanitation
Governance and efficiency of the water and sanitation sector; waste management
Productive infrastructure
Expansion of transport and energy infrastructure
Sustainable transport alternatives in urban areas; energy efficiency
Institution for growth and social welfare
Sector prioritiesOngoing involvementDevelopment areas
Financial services
Strengthening SME lending through second-tier vehicles
Institutions and policy reforms for improved credit markets and financial services
Fiscal efficiency and sustainability
Institutional strengthening at national and subnational levels; continued support to decentralization agenda
Tax policies and administration; public expenditure management
Citizens’ security
Social rehabilitation; modernization of criminal justice
Multidimensional interventions in citizen’s security; anticorruption and anti-money laundering initiatives
Competitive regional and global international integration
Sector prioritiesOngoing involvementDevelopment areas
Trade and Integration
Negotiation and implementation of trade agreements; trade facilitation and customs procedures; administration and harmonization of trade regulations; export and foreign investment promotion; regional infrastructure corridors; regional public goods
Convergence mechanisms among multiple trade agreements; trade security and logistics; regulatory frameworks for capital and labor migration; trade in services; multi-country infrastructure projects; coordination of national sovereign operations featuring cross-border externalities; large-scale regional public goods
Protect the environment, respond to climate change and enhance food security
Sector prioritiesOngoing involvementDevelopment areas
Environment and climate change
Development of institutional and regulatory frameworks to allow investments in sustainable transport, alternative fuels,renewable energy and energy efficiency
Climate change adaptation in priority sectors such as water, agriculture and energy; development and use of sustainable (including renewable)energy sources, energy efficiency technologies and practices, and carbon finance; risk management for natural disasters
Food security
Agricultural development; land tenure
Increasing food security through agricultural productivity

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